But the situation is no longer the same. Today, Shova is a busy woman and she earns enough to meet her household expenditure. This transformation became possible because of Fordays - a Japanese beverage company. [break]
Fordays provided skill-oriented trainings to 60 women like Shova under its corporate social responsibility program.
Apart from conducting informal education classes, the company provided tailoring and handicraft production trainings to the under-privileged women in Sarangkot. Garments and handicrafts items produced by these women have found markets in countries such as Japan and India.
“Earlier, we used to spend our day doing nothing. Now, we don´t want to remain idle,” said Shova. “Income generation is a motivating factor for everyone.”
She further added that women like her were earning as much as Rs 8,000 a month. “All the women earn equal amount, as we work in group and share the earning equally,” she added.
According to Shova, the women started handicraft production about six months ago. “We have already sent to consignments to Japan,” she said, adding that they are receiving fresh orders from India.
Not only housewives, even college-goers are involved in handicraft production.
“Earlier, I used to ask my parent to pay college fee. Now, I am paying fee myself,” said Apsara Thapa. “The skills have become really beneficial for students like me,” she added.
Keiko Wada, the chief of Fordays who is currently in Nepal, said the company decided to provide training to housewives as a part of their social responsibility. “We thought that if we train housewives we would be able to send more children to school,” he said.
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